Saturday, March 25, 2006

The next couple of weeks are going to be full of opportunities for me to talk about, learn about and experience more deeply the spiritual and historical significance of being a person of African Descent in the Baha'i Faith. Today my wife and I will be participating in a course of Green Acre Baha'i School called The Origins of the Baha’i Faith in Black America.

On Friday April 7 I will be speaking as part of a panel of young religious leaders at a symposium at Harvard Divinity School called A Time To Speak.This symposium is a gathering of African Americans from a variety of religious traditions to explore spiritual responses to the challenges facing our community in an age of "crisis" dramatized so painfully by the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

April 15-16 I will be participating in a local Black Men's Gathering in the Greater Boston area. The Black Men's Gathering is an international fellowship of brothers committed to applying the Baha'i Revelation to the spiritual and moral empowerment of peoples of African Descent around the world.

Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith said this about people of African Descent:"Thou art like unto the pupil of the eye that is dark in color but is a fount of light and the revealer of the contingent world."

This profound statement has been a source of inspiration to the souls of Black Baha'is for generations. But what does it mean? To reflect on the possible spiritual significance of this analogy it could be helpful to explore the physical reality it is based on. How does the "pupil" actually work and what is it's function in the phenomenon of sight?

The pupil is the black-appearing spot in the center of the iris. Its size changes since its function is to control the amount of light reaching the retina. In the dark, it expands allowing more light to enter. It contracts in bright light to keep out excess light. The retina is a membrane that lines the inside wall of the eye. It contains photoreceptors (rods and cones) that change light into sight by converting light into electrical impulses. These electrical messages are sent from the retina to the brain and interpreted as images.(From How Eyes Work www.pixi.com) Pupil size can change from 2 millimeters to 8 millimeters. This means that by changing the size of the pupil, the eye can change the amount of light that enters it by 30 times. (From science.howstuffworks.com)

Thus a possible way of understanding the analogy of Black people being like the pupil of the eye may be in reflecting on the pupil's role of modulating the intensity of light involved in our capacity to "see", particulary that the pupil can "magnify" the amount of light we receive.

What spiritual signficance does "light" have in the Baha'i Writings and other Scriptures? Here are a few selections to consider:

The utterance of God is a lamp, whose light is these words: Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship. He Who is the Daystar of Truth beareth Me witness! So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth. The One true God, He Who knoweth all things, Himself testifieth to the truth of these words.(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 14)

O ye people of the Book! our Apostle has come to you to explain to you much of what ye had hidden of the Book, and to pardon much. There has come to you from God a light, and a perspicuous Book; God guides thereby those who follow His pleasure to the way of peace, and brings them into a right way.(The Qur'an (E.H. Palmer tr), Sura 5 - The Table)

1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.(King James Bible, 1 John)

42,6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and have taken hold of thy hand, and kept thee, and set thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations; 42,7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house. (Nev'im (Prophets), Yeshayahu (Isaiah))

The ways in which "light" is used in sacred scripture are far too many to even begin to explore them in this post, but the selections above lead me to believe that a way of understanding Black folks as the "pupil of the eye" is that our contribution to the world somehow involves acting as a source of "magnification" of the "light" of God's Revelation. This magnifying power may serve to increase humanity's spiritual perception of God's power, love, wisdom and guidance.

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Who Is the Author?

Phillipe Copeland is author of the blog, "Baha'i Thought" which offers commentary on issues of religion, society, and culture based on the teachings of the Baha'i Faith. "Baha'i Thought" received a 2010 "Award of Excellence in Internet Communication" from the Religion Communicator's Council, a "Best of the Web" award from "The Daily Reviewer", and is featured on the Religion News Writer's Association website. Mr. Copeland is a contributing scholar to "State of Formation", a multi-author blog founded by the Journal for Interreligious Dialogue and run in partnership with Andover Newton Theological Seminary, Hebrew College, and The World Parliament of Religions. His columns are featured on "Peace Next", the social networking site of the World Parliament of Religions and Blogcritics Magazine. He is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, a Ph.D candidate in social work at Simmons College in Boston, MA, and Adjunct Faculty in Social Work at Boston University.

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